Book 1: August 1996
Was widely recommended by Robert Jordan, which is why I tried it out

Book 2: February 1999
Ended up making the bestseller list, beginning GRRM's rise to fame and money

Book 3: November 2000
Seasons 3 and 4 of the show
Won several best novel awards and the money and endorsements started pouring in. GRRM at this point decided to start doing more book signings, fan meetings with Q and A and enjoying his wealth. His weight ballooned.

Previously, his blogs were amazing. He would release early sample chapters to feed the appetite of fans with regularity. But a polar shift occurred after he became very rich between 2000-2005. His blogs started being less and less about his book series and more Ric Flair like talking about enjoying his immense wealth and going to Football games and meeting with his "adoring fans". He talked more about his "sandbox"(Fantasy world) in general than about the current story. He was advertising book 4 being done by 2002, but had less sample chapters than normal out. By 2003, fans were asking and then he just kept delaying. Eventually he announced half the characters(Dany, Tyrion, Jon Snow) would not be in book 4 as he focused on the other half. HUGE disappointment and then it did not come out till......

Book 4: November 2005
Book was decent, but a huge disappointment as it lacked 3 crucial characters.

Between this book and book 5 was more of the same blog nonsense. Yes yes you are rich and famous, but by 2007 he said he would stop giving updates since it is going to take a lot longer than he thought. While constantly blogging on enjoying his wealth and fame. Occasionally you get a "I wrote 2 pages this week! That's the most I have written in the last year in one sitting. Well, off to a football game and next week I have another meet and greet with fans in England."

I am not shitting you either. Anyone who followed his blog hoping for tidbits will tell you the same.

Insult to injury was when he called Robert Jordan out for allowing another to finish the Wheel of time after he died. He went out and called Robert Jordan out(After he died). He said it is disgraceful that jordan allowed another to play in his sandbox wheel of time(Jordan wanted to make sure the loyal fans who were there since 1990 got the ending they deserved) and that if he died, we would NEVER see the books finished because nobody writes in his world but him and that he has taken legal steps to make sure it can never happen after he dies.

Being 65 and morbidly obese, he is already past his life expectancy, so that is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

There are a lot of blogs from other authors telling us "GRRM is not your bitch" since we complain a lot over him not writing and defending his lack of writing, telling us he has no obligation to finish anything , etc

In any case, book 5: July 2011

The last thing that happened in this book was Jon Snow being killed by the night watch.

If you think GRRM is anywhere near finished his book series, you are sadly mistaken. He is not even finished book 6. He is not even working exclusively on it.

He is working on his book fire and blood, which is a 2 book volume giving us the history of each Targaryen king(Like a DnD sourcebook) and has nothing to do with the current story. He is working on Winds of Winter too, but has been since 2011. He also is releasing a short story about Aynys and Maegor Targaryen in some other anthology which apparently took him years to write. A short story took him years to write.

He is also helping HBO with FOUR GOT spinoff shows.

His latest info on the matter stated he was not sure what book he would finish first, but both were Months away.(For posterity, last time he said the book was months away was in 2003 when giving updates on book 4) and he followed it by saying we "Might" get a Westeros book(Either fire and blood or Winds of Winter) from him in 2018, but he was not sure(He gave this update 2 months ago)

To be fair, books 4 and 5 were such large steps down from book 3 that I am happy the show changed a bunch of stuff to spice it up.

You know, if he dies I'm ok if the series doesn't get finished by another author. Hunters and Sandworms of Dune were fucking garbage, and Brian Herbert should be ashamed of what he and Kevin J. Anderson did with the Dune franchise.

That being said, I would like it if GRRM's estate would release his notes or drafts of whatever he's got done on books 6 and/or 7 if he died before they're released. I'd just like a better clue of where he's going with some of his stuff.

Frankly I wish they had done that with Dune. Herbert Jr. claimed that Dune 7 & 8 were based off of notes left by his father, but I don't believe him one bit. I think he's a shameless fucking liar, and he sold those books on the lie that they're the brainchild of his Dad, when in fact the books are more of a sequel to the story laid out in the Butlerian Jihad trilogy written by Jr. and Anderson, instead of being a real sequel to Dune 5 & 6. Killer robots... What a crock of shit.

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To be honest though think your talking different levels of writing there, I mean Martins books are complex and detailed but I don't think they come close to the intelligence and quality of prose of Herbert's Dune series which the sequels and spinoffs were never anything close to.

I'm guessing the basic premise of some kind of AI being a threat might have been left behind by Herbert as it is vaguely mentioned earlier in the series with humanity potentially being wiped out by "Ixian claws"(which I assume were potential future Ixian AI machines) but all of the detail to it seemed nonsense to me. Everything the earlier books mentioned about the Butlerian Jihad painted it as a social conflict against society using computers rather than overthrowing some AI overlord, it mentioned "the machine god" but I think that inference was clearly ment to be worship of tech not an actual godlike AI.

Actually wouldn't be supprised if we saw something like that(if less extreme) to make up the nudity quota for next season, generally the other actresses seem less keen as there fame grows but Carice van Houten never seemed to need much persuading to disrobe. Of course there is the potential for them to take off the necklaces.....

OK so you get to choose one Hand (extend it to all advisors) to advise you and be by your side. You are in the position of Renly Baratheon having not the strongest claim to the throne but are arguably the most liked and you believe you would be best for the job and the people (this is not about Renly or his claim so lets not argue that).

This person will be your must trusted advisor and a key to all the decisions you make as you put together the rest of your team and your plans.

So who do you choose:

- Ned Stark, hand to King Robert
- Jamie Lannister, Military advisor to Queen Cersei
- Qyborn, Hand to Queen Cersei
- Tyrion Lannister, Hand to King Joffrey, Hand to Queen Dany
- Tywin Lannister, Hand to Mad King, King Joffrey and King Tommen
- Bron, Advisor to Tyrion and Jamie
- Vary's, advisor to King Robert, King Joffrey and others
- Davos, advisor to Stannis and Jon Snow, King in the North
- Jorah, advisor to Queen Dany
- Little Finger, advisor to King Robert
-?

Who am I missing and who would you choose?

Also you cannot control this person, their loyalty is their own as per show cannon. Everything they have expressed so far though shows them to be intensely loyal to you and a friend.

So if you pick someone like Little Finger and you may get someone very ambitious and cunning but also who might have his own agenda.
(Edits thanks to @TheWorm)

At the pace he is writing and with his health issues it is almost a certainty he will not finish the books.

And in a way that might be the plan because trying to tie up all these story lines in a way that pleases the readers might be more difficult then leaving them unfinished and letting people assume you had planned some epic conclusion that everyone would have loved.

OK so you get to choose one Hand (extend it to all advisors) to advise you and be by your side. You are in the position of Renly Baratheon having not the strongest claim to the throne but are arguably the most liked and you believe you would be best for the job and the people (this is not about Renly or his claim so lets not argue that).

This person will be your must trusted advisor and a key to all the decisions you make as you put together the rest of your team and your plans.

So who do you choose:

- Ned Stark, hand to King Robert
- Jamie Lannister, hand to the Mad King and Military advisor to Queen Cersei
- Qyborn, Hand to Queen Cersei
- Tyrion Lannister, Hand to King Joffrey, Hand to Queen Dany
- Tywin Lannister, Hand to King Robert
- Bron, Advisor to Tyrion and Jamie
- Vary's, advisor to King Robert, King Joffrey and others
- Davos, advisor to Stannis and Jon Snow, King in the North
- Jorah, advisor to Queen Dany
- Little Finger, advisor to King Robert
-?

Who am I missing and who would you choose?

Also you cannot control this person, their loyalty is their own as per show cannon. Everything they have expressed so far though shows them to be intensely loyal to you and a friend.

So if you pick someone like Little Finger and you may get someone very ambitious and cunning but also who might have his own agenda.

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You've got a few of your hands mixed up. Tywin was hand to the Mad King, not Jamie. Jamie was Kingsguard. Tywin also went on to be Hand to Joffrey and Tommen. But he was never Hand to Robert. That was Jon Aryn and then Ned.

If you think GRRM is frustrating, try being a fan of Berserk. Honestly, between ASOIAF and Berserk, I'm pretty much ruined for unfinished/ongoing fantasy series.

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I decided long ago not to start any book series until they are finished. I'm old enough to have seen the film serials that were made to keep people going to theaters. At least they were done in one year and usually in 12 episodes but each one had a cliffhanger ending.

At the pace he is writing and with his health issues it is almost a certainty he will not finish the books.

And in a way that might be the plan because trying to tie up all these story lines in a way that pleases the readers might be more difficult then leaving them unfinished and letting people assume you had planned some epic conclusion that everyone would have loved.

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If his conclusions to story lines are like the Hodor conclusion, it might be better to leave them to the imagination. Bran is inside the base of a tree when the wights attack but they don't surround the tree. They can't track a sled being pulled through the snow?

If his conclusions to story lines are like the Hodor conclusion, it might be better to leave them to the imagination. Bran is inside the base of a tree when the wights attack but they don't surround the tree. They can't track a sled being pulled through the snow?

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I still feel like the Wights are mindless hive mind type creatures that don't think for themselves.

Like, after Jon falls in none of them notice him pop out except for the one and as soon as the one sees him they all turn to look. Feel like shit like that is a specific thing from GRRM.